


The day Draco Malfoy acted normal under a Love Potion

by dementordementor



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, Harry Potter is Obsessed with Draco Malfoy, Hogwarts Eighth Year, I'm Bad At Tagging, Love Potion/Spell, M/M, but what's new? lol, i think it's fluff, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:34:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26554420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dementordementor/pseuds/dementordementor
Summary: Inspired in the prompt: Drarry AU in which Slytherins slip Draco a 24-hour love potion so that he falls in love with Harry Potter.And they’re all laughing watching him drink it and they watch him all day waiting for him to make a fool of himselfAnd he doesn’t act any different.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 8
Kudos: 935





	The day Draco Malfoy acted normal under a Love Potion

**Author's Note:**

> I haven’t read any One-shots about this prompt so I decided to write one myself lol. It's low key different since it takes place in the 8th year and the Slytherins are not the ones who put the love potion. Anyway, enjoy. Constructive criticism and suggestions will be thanked!

“Why have you all been following Malfoy?”

“I don’t think you are entitled to ask that considering the huge obsession you caught on Malfoy in 6th year,” replied Hermione half-giggling and half-serious in a way only Hermione was able to do.

He didn’t reply to her comment and waited for an answer to his question.

“We sneaked a 24-hour love potion in Malfoy’s drink this morning and we are waiting for it to make effect,” replied Ernie Macmillan.

“Don’t say ‘we’, Hermione, Neville, Dean and I tried to stop the three of you,” said Ron quickly referring to Ernie, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Seamus Finnigan.

“With whom he should be falling in love with?” Everyone suddenly turned back to look at him but none of them really looked him in the eyes. “What?” he asked, even more intrigued.

“We really tried to stop them, Harry,” began to say Hermione, and Harry was starting to get angry at her tone. It was the tone she always used when she didn’t want him to get mad, which just made him angrier.

“We told them it was stupid,” added Dean.

“I didn’t even know about this until a few minutes ago,” added Neville. All of them were avoiding his question as well as his eyes.

“ _Who_ is he supposed to fall for?” He sounded pissed now.

“With em... someone who... may have killed Voldemort...” replied Ron hesitantly.

“You made him fall for me?!” asked Harry, leaving his hidden spot behind the door of the Potions class where they were all spying on Malfoy. The seven people in front of him shushed him and tried to pull him behind the door again. “Have you gone mental?! What in Merlin’s tits has gotten into you?!” he hissed at them.

“Harry, calm down, nothing has happened until now. He has been acting nothing different the whole morning,” replied Seamus whispering and sounding disappointed.

“I don’t understand. If you gave it to him around three hours ago it ought to have made an effect by now,” replied Hermione looking at Malfoy seated on his usual seat inside the Potions class, peacefully doing some work. They were all in a free period but since they had Potions after that period, Malfoy apparently had decided to get inside at once, being allowed by Slughorn, who was in his desk checking some paperwork.

“Maybe it’s because he hasn’t seen Harry?” suggested Justin. 

“Go and try to help him with his work Harry. We want to see him embarrass himself,” said Ernie giggling.

“I am not going to do such a thing. I told you all to leave Malfoy alone at the beginning of the year. You are not going to use me as part of your stupid joke.” He intended to leave but as soon as he turned his back, Slughorn called them all inside for their Potions lessons. 

“Sit in pairs, please. Today we’ll work in pairs,” he said as the students got inside the classroom.

Harry was used to being Malfoy’s partner by now since Ron and Hermione always paired up together (also because nobody liked to be Malfoy’s partner), but today was different. Today Malfoy was _supposed_ to act differently.

He sat at Malfoy’s side and gave him a quick, nervous smile which was returned gleefully. 

Neither of them spoke, just paying attention to Slughorn’s instructions but Harry stopped paying attention in the middle of the explanation. His attention was directed to Ernie and Justin who were looking at both of them, or well, at Malfoy. He didn’t want Malfoy to notice this and make him uncomfortable considering that everything was going rather fine.

When Malfoy was about to turn his head to see where all the murmurs were coming from, Harry called his attention, “Malfoy.” The white-skinned boy quickly turned to look at him and he didn’t know what else to say. “Are you feeling alright?” was all he could come up with.

“Yes... I am. Why?” he asked, confused.

“Um, nothing in specific,” replied Harry.

“Are _you_ alright?” Malfoy asked in response.

“Yep. Perfectly fine,” he said awkwardly. They both turned to face Slughorn again to pay attention.

When Slughorn finished giving the instructions Harry offered to go and bring the ingredients. He stood up and made his way to the storage where he grabbed Seamus and Hermione by their arm and pulled them apart.

“Are you _sure_ you put the love potion in _his_ goblet?” he asked as lowly as he could.

“Yes, mate. Do you see anyone else dying for you? Look…” Seamus replied, getting an empty, little, pink, heart-shaped bottle out of his robe’s pocket. Harry murmured something incoherent and turned to walk back to his table, being stopped by Hermione.

“This is so weird. It _must_ have made an effect by _now_ … Unless– no, it can’t…” said Hermione more for herself but Harry managed to listen.

“Unless _what_?” Harry asked annoyed.

“I’m not sure. Look, we’ll pay close attention to Malfoy today. At the end of the day, I’ll give you my conclusion, unless you manage to crack it before. But right now, let’s give him more time. Just act as you would normally act with him, OK?” she said walking away towards her table. Seamus and Harry did the same towards their own table.

The class went by rather fine. Harry kept gazing at Malfoy, trying to notice _something_ that might give him away. But nothing happened. The first time he gazed at Malfoy he gave him a smile in return, but he didn’t the other seven times. 

“Are you sure you are feeling alright, Harry?” asked the silver-haired boy.

After a couple of months after Draco’s trial they had started calling each other by their first names, agreeing to leave their rivalry behind.

Harry noticed he had been staring for a longer time than what he had intended to and he quickly looked to the boiling cauldron on their desk. “Yeah. I’m fine,” said Harry, giving him a comforting fake smile. He wasn’t sure if Draco believed him but either way, he turned to continue brewing the potion.

“Can you cut the Leaping Toadstools, please?” Harry grabbed the knife and the cutting board and began to cut without really paying attention to what he was doing, more interested in looking at Draco counting the times he had to stir clockwise.

“Potter!” reproached Draco stopping the circular motions in the cauldron. Harry quickly turned his gaze again to the cutting board and noticed he was bleeding. He had caused a cut in the upper part of his thumb and he hadn’t even noticed. “Merlin, what’s wrong with you?” claimed Draco, taking his wand and casting a spell to close the wound. “Are you _sure_ you are feeling alright?” he asked sounding worried now.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I just got distracted,” he justified himself. Harry cast a cleaning spell, cleaning the drops of blood on the cutting board and dropped the Leaping Toadstools inside the cauldron without thinking about it.

“No! Potter!” Draco grabbed his hand but it was too late, he had already dropped the Leaping Toadstools in the cauldron. He slowly turned to look at Draco’s eyes, “That was the last-” he couldn’t even finish the sentence. A loud explosion echoed through the class, drawing everyone's attention to their table, “-step.”

They were both covered in a green slimy substance. Harry felt the heat on his cheeks indicating he was blushed. 

“Mr. Potter! Mr. Malfoy!” Slughorn reprimanded them. Harry heard him sight loudly before casting a cleaning spell on both of them. The cauldron and the rest of the ingredients were gone. “You’ll have to do it after your lessons, I want you here at 5,” he told them, sounding tired. “The rest of you, have less than 10 minutes to finish.”

Draco quickly let go off his hand and Harry was capable of observing a blush in his cheeks. “I know you are not the best at potions Potter, but Merlin! You just have to follow the steps!” Malfoy didn’t sound angry, he was not pleased either.

“I’m sorry, I just… er-” What was he supposed to tell him? ‘ _I just couldn’t stop gazing at you because my friends gave you a love potion to fall for me but you have been acting as if nothing happened’_? Definitely not. With that thought, an idea came to his mind. What if Malfoy hadn’t drunk his juice in the morning? “Draco…” he began to say casually.

“Hm?”

“How was breakfast today?” he asked in the same casual tone, as if trying to just start a normal conversation.

“Uh… fine? I guess. Why are you acting so weird?”

“What did you drink today?” replied Harry ignoring his question.

“Gillywater, why?” replied Draco suspiciously.

“Just curiosity,” replied Harry casually again. Draco gave him a look indicating he didn’t believe him but before he could say so, Slughorn dismissed them.

Harry joined his friends and they all made their way to Herbology. 

“So he isn’t acting out of normal?” asked Seamus incredulously.

“Actually, Harry has been acting weirder than Malfoy,” pointed out Hermione.

“I’m not! And if I were, how was I supposed to act around someone who is supposed to be making a fool of himself because of a love potion but it’s acting as if he just drank milk?” replied Harry annoyed. 

No one replied to him. The way to Herbology was silent until they reached the class and took their usual seats.

Sprout began to introduce the lesson but Harry couldn’t be less interested in what she was saying. He was furthermore interested in the silver-haired boy sitting in front of him, being split apart only by the long table in the Greenhouse. There was a dim sun ray that lighted part of his face and made one of his grey and catching eyes look brighter.

Draco was just paying attention to the lesson. Not even looking at _him_. Why was he not looking at him? Maybe he had drunk an anti-love potion? No, how could he know he was under a love potion? And where would he have gotten the antidote to it?

“Potter?” asked professor Sprout getting him out of his train of thoughts. Draco (and probably the whole class) turned to look at him. His eyes locked with Draco’s and he saw Draco’s eyes giving sort of a signal to answer Sprout. When Harry didn’t reply and didn’t even move Draco turned his gaze towards Sprout.

“Fanged Geranium’s fangs are used as potion ingredients, as well as in foodstuffs.”

“Very good, Mr. Malfoy,” replied Sprout and began another explanation about something Harry really couldn’t care less about.

Draco turned to look at him again and raised an eyebrow. 

The class went by and Harry couldn’t stop gazing at Draco, expecting him to do _something_. The lesson was just explanatory and the most interesting thing that happened was the few times in which Draco also turned to look at him with those piercing grey eyes, but he quickly turned his gaze again to the front of the Greenhouse with a dim blush.

The day went by rather fine and boring. Draco had not done not even one embarrassing thing and everyone who knew about the love potion was getting tired of expecting him to do so. All of them had given up and they all had decided that the potion was probably bad and that they were lucky they hadn’t poison Draco. Everyone but Harry and Hermione. 

Hermione seemed to have an idea of why the potion had ‘not worked’ but Harry didn’t, and he was still waiting for Draco to do something stupid.

“Just give up mate, something probably went wrong,” Ron had told him. But he didn’t lose hope. He still had to do that potion with Draco at five. If he didn’t act any different by then, then he was going to ask him what was going on with him. Even if that implied telling him what his friends had done.

“Maybe you’ll be able to discover why it hasn’t worked when you go to detention with him,” Hermione whispered to him before he left the common room with Draco, making their way to potions class.

Their way to the classroom was in an uncomfortable silence.

“How has your year been going so far?” asked Harry, trying to stop the uncomfortable silence between them.

“Most of the people have been ignoring me, which is better than insulting, so I guess fine,” replied Draco sounding exhausted.

“Oh,” was all Harry could say, and he couldn’t help but feel pity for Draco.

They knocked on the door of Potion’s classroom and heard Slughorn telling them to get in.

“I don’t think I’ll have to explain again, either way, you have the instructions on the board. I need to do other things so you will have one hour to finish. I’ll be back in one hour. Grab the ingredients and then I will leave you, and _please_ Mr. Potter, do not make anything explode again,” he said and made a gesture with his hand indicating that they should go to the storage to bring the ingredients. 

When they did so and they seated on their place with the ingredients on their table, Slughorn asked Harry once more to not make anything explode and then left the room. 

“I’ll cut the ingredients this time and you’ll stir. Is that OK?” Draco asked him, putting the liquid ingredients in the cauldron and turning on a fire under it with a non-verbal spell. Harry nodded.  
“You have to stir _seven_ times _clockwise_ and then _ten_ times _anti-clockwise_ _every time_ I _add an ingredient_ ,” he said as if explaining that two plus two is four to a six-year-old kid.

“Yeah, OK,” said Harry annoyed.

They began to do their respective jobs without speaking to each other but Harry couldn't help but gaze at Draco occasionally.

“Ten,” Draco reminded him and he gave another stir before Draco added the next ingredient. When Draco slightly stood up from his seat, Harry noticed how _close_ their faces were. Draco turned to look at him and flushed and took a seat back again. Harry was also really conscious now about their knees touching each other. “Stir, Potter.”

He began to stir, they were now only missing the Leaping Toadstools, which Draco was cutting really thin. He looked so focused and Harry couldn’t help but notice how pretty he looked. His long full lashes fluttered every time he blinked.

“Do I have something on my face?” asked Draco, stopping to cut.

“Sorry,” murmured Harry as he took his gaze back to the cauldron. He was about to start stirring anti-clockwise but Draco rebuked him.

“Seven.”

He stirred once more and then began to stir anti-clockwise. Draco had already finished chopping the Leaping Toadstools.

“You haven’t been feeling different today? Not at all?” asked Harry to the boy at his side.

“No, Potter. I’ve felt pretty normal all day. Why?” Draco asked annoyedly but didn’t allow him to answer. “Focus. You have to make it go all the way around.” He grabbed Harry’s hands and began to stir with him. 

Harry stopped stirring, just being guided by Draco’s hands and looked at his face. Draco turned to look at him as well. His cheeks were blushed but he kept counting the stirs. Being this close he noticed how Draco bit his lip every time he counted a stir. Finally, something clicked in his head.

“You like me,” said Harry shocked, locking his eyes with Draco’s.

“What?” Draco asked confused. He would have stopped stirring, but Harry continued to guide his hands. 

“You’re really good at potions, right?” asked Harry.

“Yes, what does this have to do with what you just said?” Draco stopped the stirring and split their hands apart, and dropped the Leaping Toadstools in the cauldron. He began to stir clockwise with Harry.

“What would happen if someone who is already in love drank a love potion?” asked Harry, his mind working really hard, not being able to believe what he was thinking about. “For example, if Hermione drank a love potion to fall for Ron?”

“This is pretty basic knowledge, Potter-anticlockwise-” Harry began to stir anti-clockwise. “Nothing would happen. Remember that love potions don’t create _real_ love. If the person is already in love with the other one then nothing would happen,” explained Draco.

“That’s why you have been acting the same all day,” affirmed Harry more to himself. “You like me.”

“What?”

“Er- some… people, gave you a love potion, to fall for... _me,_ ” explained Harry hesitantly, “I was not part of it. I didn’t know about it. Hermione and Ron tried to stop them-”

“They did _what_?!” Draco stood up, his face was red and Harry couldn’t figure if it was because he was embarrassed or angry or both.

“Don’t freak out, Draco.” He almost stopped stirring but Draco grabbed his hands fiercely and continued stirring.

“‘Don’t freak out’? How am I supposed to ‘not freak out’?! I can not even drink peacefully anymore?!” he continued to stir angrily, looking straight into Harry’s eyes, causing him fear. Melin! He had killed the most powerful wizard in the whole world but a pissed 18-year-old wizard who was definitely smaller than him managed to scare him!

“People insult me, Potter” he stopped stirring and began to pour the mixture into jars angrily. “People ignore me, Harry! Students hex me in the corridors! And don’t think I’m complaining, I deserve every single one of the things people call me! Every single thing they do, I deserve it!”

“You don’t,” began to say Harry, also standing up.

“Shut up!” Draco said coldly still angry, if he could, he would be emitting flames out of his body. He grabbed the knife and angrily buried it on the board, causing Harry to shiver. He had already finished pouring the potion into the containers. “I do! I’ve done horrible things. And somehow you managed to forgive me. And I don’t even know why! Because not even _I_ have been able to forgive myself! But nobody has ever played with my feelings like this! So don’t ask me to ‘not freak out’.” 

“So you _do_ like me?” It didn’t really sound like a question, it sounded as if he was reassuring this to himself.

“I’m not going to answer that!” he said angrily, now grabbing the two containers and turning around to walk towards Slughorn’s desk. Harry followed him. When Draco was about to turn around, he found Harry really close to him blocking his way. “Move!”

“No.”

“Harry James Potter! I swear! If you don’t move right now I’m going to hex-”

Harry didn’t let him finish the sentence. He grabbed him by the waist and pulled him close, their lips collided. Draco was shocked and didn’t move his lips at the beginning. When he got out of the shock state, he started to move them in compass with Harry’s. Harry pushed him against Slughorn’s desk and Draco seated on top of it, leaving a space between his legs in which Harry positioned himself and he grabbed Harry by the shoulders.

“Even though I’m fascinated by youthful love, I'm afraid I can not let you two snog on my desk.”

They immediately split apart in shock. Draco got off the desk and Harry could distinguish a blush on his face.

“I’m sorry professor,” replied Draco shyly.

“Just, leave. You’ll know your score in our next lesson,” said the Slughorn tiredly.

Draco grabbed Harry’s hand and ran away from the classroom. He didn’t guide them to the common room, he directed them towards the Astronomy Tower. Harry knew Draco liked the Astronomy Tower, he was not quite sure how he knew this, but he did.

He also knew he liked Draco. And he also knew he was willing to learn more about this new Draco. The broken Draco the war had left. He was sure probably both of them had constant nightmares about the war. That was a start.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, I have a soft spot for Hogwart's Astronomy Tower. Go follow me on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/drarrysht)  
> More like this: [You're my obsession and I am yours](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26052781), [Maybe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26073661)


End file.
